Goon's World Extras

Sunday, September 09, 2012

Eastern Michigan thumbs nose at NCAA?

A friend of mine pinged me on twitter with this story this past Friday.

I was going to comment on this earlier but I was busy this weekend with other things, One has to wonder if Eastern Michigan University is pushing back against the NCAA - it's also interesting that they would go back to a logo that they have already retired. It will be interesting to see how the NCAA responds to this move by EMU.

You have to wonder if EMU is basically saying we don’t care what kind of repercussions the NCAA will throw at us for violating the NCAA policy on nicknames and logos... The NCAA has said that it deems Native American logos and imagery to hostile and abusive and the NCAA bans all Native American imagery at NCAA championship events - unless that college has approval from the Tribe that the logo is representing.

YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) — When the Eastern Michigan University football team takes the field for its home opener this weekend, members of the school marching band will be sporting uniforms emblazoned with two of EMU's former logos, including one the school dropped 21 years ago amid criticism it was demeaning to Native Americans.

The Ypsilanti school will still be the Eagles — the nickname and mascot it adopted in 1991 when ditched the Hurons nickname. But EMU added its Hurons and Normalites logos to the uniforms band members will be sporting for Saturday's game against Illinois State, in the hopes that doing so will foster greater unity among its current and former students, including some who never got over the 1991 change.

"We still have Normalites who went to Michigan State Normal and are alive and wear their Normalite logo with pride," school President Susan Martin said, referring to period from the school's 1849 founding as Michigan State Normal College until 1929, when two students won a school contest by proposing "Hurons" as the new mascot. "We have many, many Hurons who are still Hurons in their heart to this day. And, of course, we have been the Eagles for 20 years.

"It's showing respect to the past but embracing the fact that we are all together under the block E and love Eastern," she told The Detroit News .

Critics contend that it's racist and demeaning for schools to use American Indian nicknames and mascots, and for years, the NCAA has been pushing schools to abandon them, threatening sanctions against schools that don't comply or don't get the blessing of the tribe whose name they're using.